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[PMB] Tendo's guide to PVE Bard in 6.0!

Introduction

Hey all you Bards, potential Bards, or curious individuals My name is Tendo on the New Frontier server of the guild Disturbed (Nezeb), a long time Bard player and I still find the class very enjoyable and I am going to try to help you understand Bards in PVE! I like playing Bard because i find it to be very versatile in both PVE and PVP situations. What you will find below is an in-depth look at the Bard from a PVE perspective including builds, information on rubies/talents, and my opinions on the most important things to remember when trying to maximize your potential as a Bard! Each of the sections below will have information on why i made the decisions I did for this guide.

Before we get started I want to mention that if you use the build in this guide you may have more rubies/talents than what is used in the guide and hopefully i will provide enough information so you can make the best choices for your extra rubies/talents. The decisions made in this guide are based on what i would consider a medium cash shop player. I tried to make a guide that for players without a Vial of Death would find the most useful in raids, astral, and other PVE situations.

This will be one of your most damaging abilities and you will want to
make sure this is at max rank.This will be used in both single target
and multi-target situations.

Solo

This will cast your Disharmony 4 times in a row at rank 1 on random
targets within range. Mostly used in single target situations since it
targets randomly. Important Note: While Solo is happening you can't use
Disharmony. If you have extra talents rank 2 here would be another good option for more damage.

Power Chord

The damage over time effect from this may be low, but it

increases your Disharmony damage done to the target so make sure to keep
this applied at all times with 3 stacks.

Timpani

This makes your next chord played within 3 seconds become an area of
effect at the cost of increasing its energy consumption by 60% at rank
2. This is very useful for large groups of enemies commonly found in
astral. This helps push your AoE DPS through the roof! I like to put one
stack of Power Chord up using Timpani then switch to Timpani and
Disharmony in large AoE pulls for lots of damage.

Flying Blade
Another one of your high damage abilities that should be used
whenever possible. This has a random cool down between 10-30 seconds.
Largely used for single target, but don't underestimate its ability to
take chunks of HP off enemies.

Raving Blade
This does 5 hits of damage over 6 seconds. This is a channeled
ability that you will use very frequently in your single target dps
rotation.

Muse
Reduces the cast time of your Raving Blade, Lullaby, and Overture and
also reduces the cool down of several of your abilities by 50% for its
duration of 30 seconds. This is a big part of your DPS because it allows
for your Solo to come off of cool down quicker as well as giving you an
increased energy regeneration rate that i will touch on in the ruby
section.

Cantata
One of the 2 songs you will be running in this build, Cantata provides a
constant source of ticking AoE damage to enemies within a 20 yard
radius.

Aria
Every 6 seconds you gain 1 stack of Aria up to a max of 20 stacks. When you use
your Disharmony (includes solo) or Power Chord it will deal additional
shadow damage. This ability adds great damage to your main DPS
abilities.

Encore
This resets the cool down of all of your abilities except for Encore and
Shadow Duette. If timed correctly when your Muse, Solo, and Flying
Blade are on cool down this will sustain your DPS on the longer fights
you encounter.

Shadow Duette
Creates a copy of your character at a target location and
preforms the 2 songs you were running at the time. In our case Aria and
Cantata! This is a huge help to your DPS since Aria only stacks once
every 6 seconds after you use some of your Aria shadow Duette can
provide a nice way to gain back stacks faster in combat as well as
providing extra damage from Cantata.

Protective Tune
A great way to cover yourself in those times you just can't get a
heal. If you take a hit that would kill you Protective Tune kicks in
and puts you at 10% max HP and reduces incoming damage taken by 30% for 3
seconds. This can help you survive in a time where you normally
wouldn't have and give you a chance to heal back up and stay in the
fight.

Lullaby

This is a channeled ability that allows you to put a target to sleep!

CCing enemies is a big part of astral to make some fights more

manageable so having an extra long term CC is great in any build.

Musical Notation
BUFFS, BUFFS, BUFFS!! This is one of your most important
things as a Bard make sure to have this ability maxed. This allows you
to cast HP, Potency, Ferocity, or Regen so it is very important to have
this for your parties.

Overture

Although not useful in all situations i have found more and more in
astral that there are buffs you can dispell that would help your group
in a pinch. Also can be useful in some raids as we have seen in the
past. I like to get rank 1 here, but it isn't a must have ability.

RhapsodyThis ability gives a target +15% hp for each party member
within 100 yards. This ability is gained from the world mysteries
and is just one of the amazing things Bard bring to any party.

Extra Abilities:
If you have an extra talent point or 2 spare i like to get the below 2 abilities
for their general usefulness. Also rank 2 in Solo is a nice addition.

Nocturne

Although nocturne at rank 1 isn't an amazing ability, this can help
in those times where you just need that extra bit of AoE healing to keep
the party alive.

Fuge in A Minor
This AoE fear doesn't work on every enemy, but i have
found it pretty useful in times when the tank is taking a lot of damage
and the healer needs an extra second of calmness to catch up.

This post has been edited 21 times, last edit by "odnetnin" (Mar 24th 2015, 9:31pm)

Increases your Proficiency, Luck, and Vigor in that order. These are
great rubies and they aren't hard to get so pick them up in your builds!

Passionate Performance
Damage Increase! At rank 3 this increases your damage by 6% while your health is up 75%, so stay healthy!

Loud Chords
Increases range of Disharmony and Power Chord when used with Timpani or Solo by 10 yards. The best part of this ruby is it also decreases energy cost of your chords by 15% at rank 3, so it really helps you use more of some of your top damaging skills.Sharp ChordIncreases critical strike chance of Disharmony and Power Chord by 20% at rank 2. This one is pretty clear as a must have since Disharmony is going to be one of your largest DPS skills.

Second Fiddle
Damage Increase! At rank 3 this increases your damage by 6% and also reduces threat by 30%. This pretty much assures that you should not be pulling agro off your tank in any situations.

Astral Blade
60% damage increase to Flying Blade and makes all of its damage now astral damage. This is important because it goes very well with the Funeral March ruby below.

Grand Finale
After finishing a cast of Raving Blade this will add an extra bit of damage on successful completions, so make sure to finish a cast in all situation that you can, but don't die for it

Master of Solo
Reduces the cool down of Solo by 30%. Not much else to say here except this makes your Solo cool down finish in 1 muse if you use Solo first.

Funeral March
Cantata ticks apply an effect on enemies with 25% or lower health that increase all astral damage done to them by 33%. This is big since a lot of the damage you will be dealing with this build is astral this will help finish the last 25% of enemies quicker.

Exaltation
Every 2 seconds gives a 6% chance to gain Euphoria. Euphoria increase your energy regen by 10 per second, so it is very important you pay attention for this buff. If you have this combined with muse and the Melpomene ruby you can have a huge burst of energy, so don't let it go to waste!

Modulation
Increases effectiveness of Cantata and Nocturne by 18%. Small damage bump, but nice to grab on the way through.

Reverberation
Damage Increase! Damage is increase by 3% PER SONG so that is 6% total! This also makes your Rhapsody skill put a +15% hp buff on yourself when used on another player.

Temperament
Decreases energy consumption when you play several songs at once. In short you should be at 8 energy per second base when you have the Aria and Cantata on in this build. Important Note: If you see less it is very important that you relog because these rubies sometimes bug and need to be reset with a relog to get to function. This only typical happens from my experience when respecing.

Resonance
Damage Increase! Increase Physical Damage by 15% and removes the cool down on Overture. This ties in with Raving Blade very well.

Menacing Tune
Damage Increase! Increases shadow damage by 15% at rank 3. This ties in with Aria very well.

Extra Rubies:
For the players that find themselves with more rubies than your average player i would suggest the following options.Long SoloThis ruby for each one you pick up adds a Disharmony to your Solo cast. This is a very nice addition to your DPS since you will be using solo often.Unison
This adds a DoT to your Grand Finale, Flying Blade, and racial abilities that stacks up to 9 at rank 3. Although it isn't a ton of your overall DPS if you can get this to 9 stacks in a fight and keep it there throughout the entire fight it can add a small DPS increase.

This post has been edited 11 times, last edit by "odnetnin" (Mar 24th 2015, 3:51am)

The opener i tend to use in single target boss situations is getting 2-3 stacks of Power Chord up then using Solo from there move into Muse, flying blade, and raving blade on as soon as they are available. (The very important piece here is that you always use your Solo before your Muse so it comes off cool down by the end) Once your Muse is out and you have recasted solo i would use Encore right away to refresh all cool downs and once that solo finishes you can start that rotation again. Use Disharmony in between your cool down of Raving Blade and Flying Blade. Rinse and Repeat

The most important tip i can give you about maximizing your DPS as Bard is WATCH YOUR ENERGY REGEN! It is so important to manage energy correctly when you get lucky enough to get all of your energy regen procs running at the same time, make sure that you don't let your energy hit the max and get wasted. Personally when things line up for me i stop using raving blade and focus on spamming Disharmony and Flying blade (when off cool down) as much as possible so i never hit the max.

Power Chord doesn't last all that long so try not to let it fade. Once you get it to 3 stacks just time your energy so you can refresh it before it expires. If it fades it is no big deal but you will have to use it 3 times to get it back to the max stacks again, so you do waste a bit of energy on it.

Important Information

Energy regen rubies... When you respec make sure you are getting the right amount of energy regen (Should be 8 in this build base) if not, relog! This bug also effects the Euphoria effect so i just recommend anytime you respec you should relog just to be safe.

Always remember to use Rhapsody on your tank! This is a 100% health increase when in a full party so this is very important and can be the difference between success and failure in astral. In raid make sure you don't cast it on someone not in your party as they will not gain the full effect.

You have all 4 party buffs so make sure to check with your party so you aren't running something someone else already is to maximize your utility.

Aria only stacks up when not mounted! This is incredibly important to take note of. I know it sucks.... But sometimes if you wipe on a boss it is better to run on foot back to the boss to gain some stacks before pulling again or ask the party to wait a minute so you can get to almost full stacks. In a raid they should have no problems with waiting a minute before a boss pull to gain your stacks back. I really only worry about waiting for stacks before bosses on trash you will basically never get back to full stacks so don't stress to much about that

Protective Tune is great and can save your life, but don't let it be your excuse for getting hit by avoidable damage... It should be there to save you when things go wrong and not to try to pad your DPS.

Dead Bard = 0 damage so make sure you still focus on mechanics of whatever fight you are on!

Did i mention watch your energy yet? I can't stress this point enough. I see so many bards sitting at full energy while channeling stuff and it is only hurting them in the long run.

This post has been edited 6 times, last edit by "odnetnin" (Mar 24th 2015, 3:20am)

So 6.0 brought a couple changes to Bard. Most notable for PVE is probably the Vigorous Tune rubies that allow you to cast Raving Blade and move at the same time. However! I do not take these in the build i posted here because i feel like there are much better DPS rubies to take in their place.

Cacophony was another Ruby added in 6.0 that does a random control effect to enemies around you. This is pretty fun to play with in PVP, but not very useful in PVE.

Ligirophobia reduces damage by 25% for 2/4/6 seconds after a control effect fades. Although it sounds interesting it would only really work on enemies that can be CCed so again not useful for us in PVE.

Assonance so far seems like another possibly PvP focused ability that allows your party to reflect damage when you use acoustic barrier. This one seems like it could be fun to play with in some PvP situations, but stay away from it in PVE.

PVP

Bards are a very useful class in PvP and have many different specs depending on play style and what type of PvP you are doing and some 6.0 changes gave them some awesome new things. If you are looking for some information on Bard PvP i would suggest to grab a Water of Death Droplets and try out a few different builds until you find one you like! If you have any questions about PvP i will do my best to answer them, but i wanted to keep this guide more focused on the PVE aspect of Bard.

Summary

So hopefully from this glimpse into the Bard PVE DPS you can see that bard can be a very fun class to play regardless of your cash shop level! This guide can give you a great starting point if you are a new player or someone that hasn't completely made it into end game content yet! As you progress further and get more rubies I hope you can use this guide as a jumping off point to find new ways to push your Bard play to its full potential.

Feedback is always appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read my 6.0 PVE Bard guide!

Tendo
Disturbed (Nezeb)
New Frontier

This post has been edited 6 times, last edit by "odnetnin" (Mar 24th 2015, 1:15am)

I had a very similar build to my bard, but there were a few key things you did differently that I think would have really helped my own (Menacing Tune and Resonance rubies). I like this guide a lot. Very well done!

I have played bard before and it is a very difficult class to master.
I really wish this guide was around when I was a bard.
After having read this guide...it makes me think that I never really captured and mastered the full capabilities of the bard class.